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Quick Start

Get up and running with Straw in 5 minutes.

1. Install Straw

Install both the daemon (strawd) and TUI client (straw):

# Linux/macOS
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/raythurman2386/straw/main/install.sh | sh

# Windows PowerShell
irm https://raw.githubusercontent.com/raythurman2386/straw/main/install.ps1 | iex

2. Start the Daemon

The daemon watches your filesystem and executes rules:

# Start and enable the service
systemctl --user start strawd
systemctl --user enable strawd

# Run directly or use launchd
strawd &

# Run directly
strawd

3. Configure Your First Rule

Create a basic configuration file:

# Create the config directory
mkdir -p ~/.config/straw

# Create the config file
cat > ~/.config/straw/config.toml << 'EOF'
# Watch your Downloads folder
[[watch]]
path = "~/Downloads"
recursive = true

# Rule: Organize PDFs
[[rules]]
name = "Organize PDFs"
enabled = true
[rules.match]
extension = ".pdf"
[[rules.actions]]
type = "move"
target = "~/Documents/PDFs"
EOF

4. Launch the TUI

Open a new terminal and launch the TUI:

straw

You should see: - Live event feed showing filesystem changes - Status of watched directories - Active rules and their match counts

5. Test Your Rule

  1. Download a PDF file to your Downloads folder
  2. Watch the TUI - you should see the rule match and execute
  3. Check ~/Documents/PDFs - your PDF should be there!

What's Next?

Common Commands

# Check daemon status (Linux)
systemctl --user status strawd

# View daemon logs (Linux)
journalctl --user -u strawd -f

# Restart the daemon
systemctl --user restart strawd  # Linux
pkill -HUP strawd                # Signal reload

# Open the TUI
straw